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Last week was Saint Valentine’s Day. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is quite a big event and will become the busiest day for the chocolate shops and other shops that sell chocolates. I believe in other countries such as America and France as well! The choice of chocolate is so much that people advertise their products from month before and customers (mostly women) think for many days and weeks what chocolate to give to who this year. (Yes, in Japan, it is a day that women give chocolates to men that she cares for…!)

School girls make chocolate for the boy she likes, getting their mothers’ help… And many married women and family with children make homemade chocolate for their husbands and fathers. It is quite a happening event in Japan!

So as for me, on top of the Sachertorte Cake I have been making, I baked Chocolate Chip Cookies with my children. Well, this was actually not so related to St. Valentine’s Day, since I follow American custom and “I” should be getting something from my husband… ahem… but my daughter wanted to eat so we made it together.

This is a chewy type of chocolate cookies that I taught in my class before ^^.

It was me and my children that ate most of the cookies but I was glad to bake chocolate cakes and cookies during February, the month of chocolate!

Our February basic class menu is Sachertorte, a traditional chocolate cake invented in Vienna, Austria. It was invented during 19th century for the prince and the nobleman, and was served at Demel and Hotel Sacher. It immediately became popular and has become one of the most popular souvenirs in Austria! This traditional moist chocolate cake is sandwiched with apricot jam and is coated with fondant chocolat / glacage au chocolat. It is normally served chill with whipped cream at the side.

Following the Demel & Hotel Sacher style, we will bake biscuit sacher in 6″ round ring, sandwich with our homemade apricot jam, and coat with glacage au chocolat. I will also introduce you a new glacage au chocolat recipe.

You can bake this cake for the Saint Valentine’s Day!

Another menu for this class is Apricot sable, a cookie sandwiched with apricot jam. It is also nice to be eaten chilled.

Here is our class schedule;

DATE: February 12th (Sun.) 11:00am-2:30pm – FULL

February 18th (Sat.) 11:00am-2:30pm – FULL

FEE:RM200 (RM159 for members)

I will be repeating this class in March. Thanks!

If you are interested in joining the class, kindly email me at caramelmoko@gmail.com (Tomoko).

I hope you had a wonderful Chinese New Year holidays with your family and friends! As for my family, we went back to my husband’s hometown Ipoh to see our relatives. It was just a one night trip but my children and I really enjoyed the tradition and culture during our family gatherings…!

So it’s February already! Thanks for waiting long~ I am finally posting February 2017 class schedule today. SaintValentine’s Day is coming soon, so I would like to introduce you traditional Austrian moist chocolate cake, Sachertorte, as well as some traditional French desserts and cookies^^.

How was your Hari Raya holiday? I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend^^. As for me, I stayed around the town and played with my kids, went to some cafes and also did some baking. It was relaxing and refreshing holiday for me ^^*.

This is Tart au Tiramisu I’m teaching in July class.

It consists of; Pate a sucre chocolat (chocolate tart), chocolat ganache with a hint of orange flavour, biscuit chocolat (chocolate sponge cake), and tiramisu mousse on top. It is a delicious tart especially for chocolate lovers…

We will bake Orange chocolat finacier together in the class. Chocolate and orange is a good match!

As you can see from the photo, outside is made of chocolate cake, and inside is consisted with; caramelized walnuts cream, caramelized banana and vanilla mousse. It looks simple, but honestly, this might’ve been one of the most complex cake I’ve ever taught in the class (apart from Entremet Orange Chocolat Cake)! So now you know, when you see ‘Entremet’ in the menu, be prepared… kidding.

Anyway, I was quite happy that students like this cake very much, especially the crunchy caramelized walnuts part.

I have another class this weekend, and I am going to repeat this class in January. So if you are interested in joining, please check out our January 2015 class schedule tomorrow! Thanks!

It’s December! Christmas and Year end is coming, and everyone must be getting busier for the coming gathering and events…!

In Japanese culture, we traditionally do a big house clean-up called “Oosouji” (大掃除) and also prepare New Year cards called “nengajyou”（年賀状）around this time. I called my mother yesterday and she was in the midst of making cards, haha. I won’t be making cards but I am slowly packing up my house so that we can start our New Year feeling fresh!

I am also excited to bake many cookies and cakes this month!

This is one of our Christmas Cake menu; Foret Noir (Black Forest). It’s a three layer cake with chocolate mousse and cherry inside. We will bake buscuit chocolat, chocolate cake using almond powder. The decoration part is always tedious but hope we can all finish up nicely!

Another recipe for this class is Hazelnuts Praline Sable. This is a crunchy hazelnuts cookie sandwiched with praline chocolate. You can have it in room temperature but i like to eat it cold, too!

Here are the class schedules;

DATE: December 7th (Sun.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

December 12th (Fri.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

December 20th (Sat.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

FEE:RM210 (RM169 for members)

If you are interested in class, please contact me at caramelmoko@gmail.com (Tomoko). Thank you!

I just finished my last class of 2013! Thank you so much for coming to my classes this year! I hope you enjoyed baking with me and learned some new recipes and tips^^!

By the way (to my students who took this class), here is the comparison of the pound cakes made using ‘spatula’ vs. ‘hand-mixer’. The one on the left is hand-mixer and the one on the right is spatula. You can see that the one on the left is more fluffier and looks nicer, but for this type of cake it’s better not to whisk too much because the cake gets too airy and dried. It really depends on what type of cake you are baking and also the recipes, and even among pound cakes they vary depending on the method you use, but for my recipes this Foret Noir pound cake and Pistachio pound cake can be said this way.

Anyway, if it’s too confusing for you, just enjoy baking and eating because all you want in the end is to have a stress release time while baking and see a Big Smile on your family & friends’ face when they eat your cakes!

…Just like I had them with my daughter’s 3 year old birthday cake!

Lastly, have a good year end and Happy New Year! I will see you again in 2014 soon! (I shall be posting schedule in the next few days.)